That Golden Touch to the Arches in Russia McDonald's Is Unsung Bearer of Western 'Civilization'

When the first McDonald's opened in Moscow in 1990, it was the
first direct, personal experience for tens of thousands of
Soviets with the Western way of customer service.

"It was the most enjoyable day of my life," recalls a young
television editor, Olga Golovina, of her first visit. Now she eats
lunch nearly every day at a McDonald's near her daughter's school.

In those days, the company was an island of efficiency and
quality control in a dysfunctional, state-controlled universe. It
supplied itself with everything from beef to milk from its own
McComplex near Moscow, and 40 percent of McDonald's employees here
were from the West.
The novelty of the Golden Arches on Pushkin Square has long worn
off.
And although Americans don't usually think of this fast-food
chain as one of their highest contributions to world civilization,
the impact in Russia of McDonald's has continued to spread and
deepen.
Now McDonald's has 10 restaurants in Moscow and two new ones in
St. Petersburg. Of its 3,500 employees in Russia, only four remain
non-Russians.
Every day, more than 100,000 people eat at a McDonald's in
Moscow; company officials claim the original one is the busiest
restaurant in the world. (The new McDonald's in Beijing is
physically larger, but serves fewer people per day.)
The company is no longer a self-contained system selling burgers
and fries to Russians. More than 100 companies in the former Soviet
Union now supply the growing empire of McDonald's in Russia. "Step
by step, they grow with us," says Pavel Ryabov, marketing director
for McDonald's in Russia.
And the McDonald's example has not been lost on the locals. A
Russian fast-food chain, Russkoye Bistro, was launched by Moscow
Mayor Yuri Luzhkov in 1995 following directly in McDonald's
footsteps. Instead of burgers and Coca-Cola, Russkoye Bistro sells
meat pastries and kvas, a yeasty traditional soft drink. Service is
quick, prices are well below McDonald's, and more than 100 Russkoye
Bistro outlets serve 35,000 to 40,000 people a day.
"If McDonald's had not come to our country, then we probably
wouldn't be here," says Vladimir Pivovarov, deputy director of
Russkoye Bistro. McDonald's "caused alarm among local authorities
to create something of our own."
Olga Golovina, sitting with a friend in a McDonald's dining
room, takes national pride that Russians answered McDonald's in a
Russian style. "I'm always thinking that we're good fellows because
we showed that we're not worse than McDonald's," she says.
"McDonald's helped give form to the new economy," says Mr.
Pivovarov. Since McDonald's arrived, he says, he has seen Russians
"become better at choosing. They want Western standards of quality
and taste."
If McDonald's has been a model of capitalism, it has also become
a source of growing business for its developing network of
suppliers. …

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